DVR with Digital Tuner Suggestions

In about 2 weeks my cable is going to be going 100% digital, normally this would be a good thing. More channels, better picture, interactive guide, etc... Problem is I like to record shows on my vcr and I don't want to pay $10 a month to rent a dvr from my provider. So I'm looking into getting a dvr with a digital tuner. I tried looking on newegg, and it gave me a bunch of CCTV dvr's... not exactly what I had in mind newegg, especially since I was searching under the home theater/tv section. So does anybody have experience with this/good suggestions. I'm looking for something around or under $200. Thanks

(\__/) Doctor Steel(='.'=) "and then when no one expects it ... BAM !! No more unicorns" - Nyt Ryda(")_(") Not that I don't trust you, but to be honest I don't really trust you. - Locutus

I picked up the Magnavox MDR537H 1TB HDD & DVD Recorder with Digital Tuner about a month or so ago. It has a 1TB hard drive and a DVD drive. It also has the ability to pause live TV, and I just love that feature. No monthly fees from the cable company or anyone else. It’s a little more than you want to spend, and I saw the price fluctuate up and down 2 or 3 times a week while I was doing my research. I have not even used the DVD feature yet. The hard drives works slick. You can record to a DVD or the hard drive, and dub it to a disk later if you want to.

I ended up getting the 500gb version of the Magnavox wingwpar suggested. Seems to be working out well. Only gripe is the led readout on the front uses white LED's and thats a little bright while Im trying to sleep. Otherwise its great.

(\__/) Doctor Steel(='.'=) "and then when no one expects it ... BAM !! No more unicorns" - Nyt Ryda(")_(") Not that I don't trust you, but to be honest I don't really trust you. - Locutus

Glad I was able to help. Yes, the LED lights in the panel are a little bright, but it’s not in my bedroom, and I’ve got used to them when I walk thru the living room in the middle of the night on my way to the kitchen. The only grip I have is when I pause live TV, then go back to it, it will start playing something on the hard drive. Doesn’t happen often, but it’s irritating when it does happen. I have tried to recreate it on purpose, but I can’t. Other than that, I’m liking my unit a lot.

hey wingspar do you have a slot in the front panel for a cable card? My cable went full digital with encryption yesterday and my box stopped working. I returned it and went to the cable company thinking I was going to be forced to use one of their boxes. Turns out they have a cable card I can get to decrypt the signal that plugs into the box, but I neglected to check if it has one under the front panel before returning it then going to the cable company. If it does I'll go buy it back, but I dont want to look like an idiot who returns something, buys it back the same day, and returns it again if it doesnt

(\__/) Doctor Steel(='.'=) "and then when no one expects it ... BAM !! No more unicorns" - Nyt Ryda(")_(") Not that I don't trust you, but to be honest I don't really trust you. - Locutus

I guess I'll have to figure something else out then. I'm looking at getting a tuner card from Ceton and some Chromecast dongles to turn my PC into a DVR and send the signal to the tv's in my house over my wireless network.

(\__/) Doctor Steel(='.'=) "and then when no one expects it ... BAM !! No more unicorns" - Nyt Ryda(")_(") Not that I don't trust you, but to be honest I don't really trust you. - Locutus